The lake level on Friday, Jan. 28 was 1,000.10 feet. Surface temperatures range from 39 degrees on the upper end to 42 degrees at Loyston and Norris Dam. Most of the large, protected hollows that were frozen during the cold snap have thawed. Some sections of the main channels above points 15 and 32 may be frozen on cold mornings.

The best crappie fishing has been in the headwaters of the larger creek embayments, where crappies are being caught 15 to 20 feet deep in shoreline brush piles on small doll flies, mini tube jigs (red/white, blue/white) and 1/32 oz. hair or feather jigs tipped with minnows.

Smallmouth bass have been hugging the shoreline on cloudy, breezy days. On sunny days when the barometer is high, smallmouth bass are suspended 15 to 20 feet deep on the points. They can be caught on Finesse/Senko worms, small lizards, tube jigs and quarter-ounce hair or feather jigs tipped with medium tuffy minnows.

Largemouth bass are hitting small plastic worms and tube jigs.

Before the arrival of bad weather, stripers had gone as deep as 60 feet and were hard to catch.